Originally Posted by
Danno
I think Gumnut's idea has some benefits, but I reckon it should be used in addition to other deterrents, imagine the situation where you have a horse that has extremely limited ability ( and there are plenty of them around), trainer loads the horse up for one big go at winning a race it was probably never going to win, horse wins and is retired...no punishment for the owner, just rewards.
Despite what I have already written, I believe a period of disqualification for the horse will reduce the ocurrance of "pretend trainers", the all too familiar situation where an about to be disqualified trainer transfers all the horses to a mate or family member, why? because the owners of the other horses in "the barn" don't want to be the next to have their horse DQ'd and see the risk is quite high.
Plus of course we do need stronger and more consistent deterrents for licensees , and some of the penalties being handed out in Victoria appear to be very lenient compared to elsewhere at the moment and I personally believe NSW could be crank their penalties up a notch or 2 on what they have already done.
Also while I'm on my soap box, the media have a case to answer in all this, how many time have we seen various members of the media fawning over "fallen stars" on their return from disqualification as if nothing has happened, that makes the honest people sick to the guts.
Welcome to the forum Danny, the more trainers/ drivers perspectives we get on this forum the more balanced the debate in my humble opinion.
cheers,
Danno